Regional News Caricom clamping down on returning Isis fighters

(Trinidad Guardian) A co-ordinated Caricom clampdown concerning returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs)— including targeting their assets— is in the works.

In the next three weeks, Caricom leaders will move to finalise plans for a Caricom arrest warrant regarding FTFs and sharing of recovered assets, as well as regional anti-terrorism legislation. The latter will be based on T&T’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation.

The matters are proposed for signature at Caricom’s upcoming July summit in Grenada. Prime Minister Keith Rowley chairs Caricom’s Security Committee.

Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Roque and National Security Minister Edmund Dillon spoke about the developments on Monday at a Caricom Counter-Terrorism Strategy conference. Stakeholders all stressed the need for an urgent Caribbean anti-terrorism thrust.

“The question for the region (on terrorism) isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’,” Dillon warned.

IMPACS executive director Francis Forbes said Impacs and the US are tracking “several hundred” from the Caribbean and South American who’ve gone to the Islamic State (Isis) terror network.

Forbes said 200-plus Caricom nationals have travelled to Isis territories—fighters and families—and 130 are being tracked as alleged FTFs.

Exact means of recruitment wasn’t clear, but all belonged to close personal networks.

Several returning FTFs are being actively monitored by regional law enforcement agencies, he added.

Yesterday’s conference at the Hyatt, hosted by Caricom’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), involved Caricom stakeholders plus experts from the US State Department, Interpol and Europe.

Dillon said main security concerns for the region posed by terrorism include the FTF phenomena persons travelling from this region to regions of conflict, and their subsequent return.

Also at issue is the increasing influence of radical clerics and radicalised Isis sympathisers in Caricom states, the growing volume/accessibility of terrorist group propaganda on-line and via peer-to-peer networks; and the potential exploitation of the banking system to fund terrorist networks.